There's something different about Camilla. From the moment The Crown introduces the future Duchess, she has a quality that sets her apart from everyone else onscreen. In the hands of writer, performer, and director Emerald Fennell, Camilla takes on a confidence akin to that of a Princess Anne or a Princess Margaret, but stripped of their entitlement—and their titles.
"She's nosy, and she's honest, and she's very open about how deeply weird she finds the whole thing," Fennell laughs. "I think for Charles, that is just unbelievably thrilling." Until it's not. In the show, after learning of Camilla's ongoing interest in Andrew Parker Bowles, the Queen Mother and Lord Mountbatten step in to separate her from Prince Charles. The formidable duo stops just short of strong-arming Camilla down the aisle with Andrew.
As royal watchers well know, that won't be the last we see of Fennell's Camilla. The years ahead for her on The Crown won't be easy, as the show enters into the era of her and Charles's highly-publicized affair. But Fennell has experience handling women in crisis.
Most recently, she stepped into the showrunner role for BBC America's hit Killing Eve, picking up where Phoebe Waller-Bridge had left it at the end of season one: with the titular Eve having just stabbed her nemesis-slash-maybe-love-interest, Villanelle, while they were curled up together in bed. In Fennell's scripts (as with Waller-Bridge's), Eve and Villanelle share a relationship more profoundly messed up than Charles and Camilla could ever hope to have. Killing Eve taps into Fennell's self-avowed fascination with horror, which she often explores in her children's novels, and will take center stage in Promising Young Woman, the forthcoming Carey Mulligan-lead film written and directed by Fennell.
In spite of all this, she's still best known to audiences as Patsy in Call the Midwife, a decidedly above-board series (unless you consider birth a form of body horror). Still, as Fennell well knows, terror can lurk in unexpected places—and as The Crown's Camilla will come to learn, just existing as a royal "is horrifying."
Here, Fennell opens up about playing the divisive figure, the idea of Camilla watching herself depicted on The Crown, and the curious lack of axe murderers among the Windsors' ranks.
If the future king invited you to a dinner date at the palace, how do you think you'd handle it?
I would probably handle it the same way that Camilla did, which is wear a skirt that's too short, trip up the stairs, and then spend the whole time underlining the colossal weirdness of the whole thing.
I actually don't think I'd go. I think I'd be too nervous to go. I mean, I might go just to steal an ashtray, but that would be about it for me.
I understand that early on, you told your agent that you were interested in playing Camilla. What was it that drew you to the role?
I think it's the public perception of her. The perception that is in the press seemed to be very much at odds with who she actually seemed to be.
I'm just very interested in playing someone whose personal reflection of themselves—and who they are—is very at odds with with the character that's been created for them by someone else.
There's been a lot of interest recently in retelling the stories of women who were vilified by the press. Do you think Camilla's story in The Crown falls into that category at all?
I think even in one episode you go a big way between being clearly sympathetic to quite cross with these characters, and it's interesting... I just didn't know [Charles and Camilla] had been together before the affair, and it kind of reframed everything. I mean it's really difficult, because the collateral damage of what happened with that affair was obviously catastrophic for everyone involved. And I think everyone has their part to play in it, really.
The thing is, with The Crown, we are dealing with like a fictionalized version of this family. And I think, really, my job is to just look at the Camilla that [showrunner] Peter [Morgan] writes and make her real... I don't think there's an agenda that he has in mind; I think he just likes to play it very straight, in a way.
How would you describe the Camilla that Peter Morgan wrote?
Oh, I would say fun. I think certainly acts before she thinks. Kind of sensitive. I think there's a very particular type of British woman, who is happy in the country, chain-smoking, hard drinking. You know, always kind of looking to have a laugh.
And I think that that's such an unusual character for this show. It's categorically the opposite of everything [the royal family is] allowed to be. They have to be thoughtful and reticent and quiet... They aren't really allowed to talk.
The thing about, certainly this Camilla, is she's nosy, and she's honest, and she's very open about how deeply weird she finds the whole thing. I think for Charles, that is just unbelievably thrilling. I don't think he's met anyone like that.
And the Camilla that you played? How did you physically express her character?
There's an interesting thing about an empathetic person. So, someone like Camilla tends to listen with her whole face, which was kind of an interesting thing. So her eyes, she's very engaged, miming, nodding, kind of with people. That was really useful.
She's also lot looser than a lot of period drama characters we see. You know, she's smoking at the bar, but she is running around... The thing I keep going back to was that she head girl of her school, and she was really, really popular, a debutante. She's one of those people who's got a physical presence, and naturally people gravitate towards.
There's something about making her a ray of sunshine—as best as I can. I'm not naturally a ray of sunshine.
Obviously you have a lot of experience on the other side of the camera as well, and writing for TV. How is it different trying to realize someone else's script as opposed to creating your own?
I've been saying for a long time that it doesn't feel like too much of a different thing. But I mean, the really good this is Peter Morgan is just an extraordinary genius, really.
It doesn't sound like you were adding a lot of notes to the script or anything.
Oh no. Oh God! Never ever.
You've previously mentioned you were a little anxious for the show to come out. Was there anything in particular about it that made you antsy?
I don't know, actually, because I think that what's really lovely about this show is that it's really fair to everyone. I think it's a function of the show itself—it's such a phenomenon, and I'm actually quite private. What's so lovely, though, is that the cast is so big and so brilliant. It feels like such a collaborative thing, and there are so many of us, so maybe that has been less scary than I thought.
But, especially when it's a show that everyone loves so much, you feel a responsibility to do an extra good job. Because you don't want to be the person who's coming to Buckingham Palace and painting the walls bright pink.
It's been reported before that the real Camilla watches the show—
Oh, really? Uh-oh.
How would you feel about Camilla watching you play her?
I do think that Peter's vision—and all of our portrayals, as actors—they tend to be even-handed and fair. The thing is, I'm sure anyone watching a fictionalized version of themselves would be like, "That's not right!" I'm sure if someone acted everything that I did yesterday, to a perfect degree, I'd be like, "I didn't say that!" So I think it would be weird to watch anyone play you.
But I don't think I would take a job, even a fictionalized [role], if I felt that somebody would be unhappy with what I had done.
What other royal would you like to play?
I'd want to play someone really scary. I think there was a kind of amazing Eastern European Queen who bathed in virgin blood. I think I'd go for that. A real terror.
I read something you wrote about your interest in horror. I'm guessing that's not something you get to explore much on The Crown?
I mean it sort of depends, doesn't it? I think, certainly, living in the royal family is horrifying, probably. It's very, very difficult. And what's so brilliant about this show is it's dealing with people who are living with immense privilege and wealth and every trapping that could ever exist. And I think what's so clear is the price that that comes with. For lots of us who get to live a normal life, it does seem quite frightening. The scrutiny that they're under.
As far as I know, there are very few axe murderers. But you know, we can't be sure.
You never know what's lurking in the past.
You never know.
Chloe is a News Writer for Townandcountrymag.com, where she covers royal news, from the latest additions to Meghan Markle’s staff to Queen Elizabeth’s monochrome fashions; she also writes about culture, often dissecting TV shows like The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Killing Eve.
